1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an entrance management apparatus and entrance management method which manage entrance (or entry) into a room or important facility in which much importance is given to the security, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a system which controls the open/closed state of a door or the fastened/unfastened state of a lock mounted on a door based on authentication of a subject person by using information of a living body such as a face inherent to a person is provided. For example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-175929, an automatic door opening/closing management system which manages entrance (or entry) into a room or important facility in which much importance is given to the security is proposed. In Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-175929, the feature of a body (face) of a person is identified according to image data and the locked/unlocked state of the door is controlled based on the result of identification.
However, the automatic door opening/closing management system disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-175929 has the following problems.
There is no description about the management of entrance of a visitor who is not previously registered or the management of entrance of a plurality of visitors. For example, in the authentication process based on a face image, the precision of the authentication process is lowered and the degree of security is lowered as the number of registered persons to be authenticated increases.
Further, there is no description about a change of the physical feature of a registered person with time or the management of entrance of a temporary user.
In addition, there is no description about a process for confirming or monitoring the result of authentication based on the physical feature in order to enhance the security.